Bihar govt rejects demand for CBI probe into MNREGA

Patna: The Bihar government rejected the opposition demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged Rs 6,000 crore scam in the implementation of MNREGA in the state on Monday and questioned the 'political motive' behind the survey carried out by a Delhi-based NGO.

"The state agencies are capable of probing any irregularity in the execution of MNREGA," state Rural Works Minister Nitish Mishra told reporters, adding, "When the situation arises (for a CBI probe into the MNREGA scam), the state government may consider."

The Bihar government rejected the opposition demand for a CBI probe into the alleged Rs 6,000 crore scam.

Earlier, replying to a motion by the opposition for a debate on the alleged MNREGA scam in the assembly, the minister had questioned the 'political motive' behind the survey carried out by Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) only in four opposition-ruled states. "The scheme (MNREGA) is being executed in all states and there could be irregularities in all of them, including those ruled by the Congress," Mishra said.

He also questioned the timing of the NGO in going public with the report. "The CEFS had completed the survey in Bihar in January 2012 but sat over it for 10 months before releasing it in November," he said.

It had been done at a time when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was found to be among top 100 global thinkers by a US-based journal and could have been done with an intention to embarrass the NDA government in the state.

Lambasting the report, Mishra questioned the sample survey of the performance audit to arrive at the alleged scam. There are a number of anomalies in the performance audit carried out by CEFS like the small size of sample, methodology, questionnaire and method, he said.